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A whistle while he works is sound of victory for UFC's Condit

UFC welterweight Carlos Condit

Photograph by: Josh Hedges
, Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

On Saturday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay-per-view with UFC 143 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where in the main event Carlos Condit meets Nick Diaz to determine the interim welterweight champion. Taking a break from his fight-week preparations, Condit went 1-on-1 with Postmedia News MMA reporter Dave Deibert, discussing video gaming, international travel and what a knockout punch sounds like to him …

POSTMEDIA: You’re in the main event on Saturday, and you’ve fought in front of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people in UFC. In comparison, what do you remember from your first fight, in Suarez, Mexico, almost 10 years ago?

CONDIT: Even though the fight card was in Suarez, Mexico, it was actually more well-put-together and more organized than some of the fights I’ve did stateside. It was in a cockfighting arena, where they do rooster fights. One of the things I remember is, my teammate beat a Mexican guy, and everybody in the crowd decided to toss their beer into the cage. I just remember, like, 1,000 or 1,500 beer cups flying and their contents in their air, and my buddy being doused while his hands were up.

POSTMEDIA: You’re obviously well-entrenched in your current profession, but growing up you worked at plenty of other jobs. Who was the better bouncer: you or the ‘Roadhouse’ version of Patrick Swayze?

CONDIT:(Laughs) I’d have to go with Patrick Swayze. Nobody beats Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse but I think I’m a close second.

POSTMEDIA: You’re an expert on this, winning UFC’s knockout of the night bonus your last two fights. How would you describe the sound of a knockout punch?

CONDIT: It’s like, I guess, if you’ve got a big roast or something, and you slabbed it on the concrete (laughs). That’s the sound to me. And I hear the air coming out of the gloves, a small whistle of air leaving the glove as they compress on the guy’s face.

POSTMEDIA: What song, TV show and movie take you back to senior year of high school?

CONDIT: (Pause) I don’t even know … (Pause) That’s a hard one. Dude, honestly, I don’t remember my senior year of high school all that much. I’m not going to get in any details but …

POSTMEDIA: I saw you tweet a while ago that Tokyo was one of your favourite places to fight. Describe a culture shock moment from one of your trips there.

CONDIT: Without a doubt, culture shock is the only thing I can use to describe it. The thing that stands out to me the most are the smells. You know, if you walk into a convenience store or a gas station here and you smell like the hotdogs.

POSTMEDIA: That’s why I hate going into a 7-11. I leave smelling like corn dog.

CONDIT: It’s the same way there, but it’s a completely different smell. It’s like octopus balls and all kinds of weird stuff. I’m sure they think what we have in our convenience stores is kind of freaky, stuff they wouldn’t be too appetized by. That’s really what stands out in my mind.

POSTMEDIA: What’s your favourite non-fight-related YouTube video?

CONDIT: It kind of varies, dude. There’s a show on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network called China, Illinois. There’s a little episode, China, Illinois Part 1. It’s pretty entertaining. All kinds of crazy songs. It got stuck in my head. Then it got stuck in my wife’s head. So we’ve been watching that and singing the silly songs from that clip for the last two or three months.

POSTMEDIA: When you play the UFC Undisputed video game, do you play as yourself?

CONDIT: I’ve literally only played that once or twice in my life, dude. I don’t game anymore, dude, because I become too much of an addict.

POSTMEDIA: You’re like a junky? You just have to stay away completely?

CONDIT: I have to abstain. Otherwise days pass, my beard grows, I get skinny. It’s just not a good picture (laughs).

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